Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/782

ra." Sending Capt. Elliot to bring up the lag- gard vessels, he ordered sail to bring his best ship close to the " Detroit." The breeze now freshened, quickly speeding the " Niagara " and the American sehoonei's into action. The " Queen Charlotte," in endeavoring to get a position for a broadside, to be followed by boarding the coming " Niagara," was disabled in her sail-gear by the langrage shot of Perry's carronades, and, falling foul of the " Detroit," the two ships became entangled. Tak- ing advantage of this, the American schooners took raking positions. The full battery of the " Niagara," joining in the steady and rapid fire, swept the British decks, and filled the air with canister, grape, ball, and scrap-iron, while the Kentucky riflemen in the tops, acting as marines, picked off every enemy visible. At three o'clock the British flag was hauled down, and for the first time in her history Great Britain lost an entire squadron, which surrendered to a young man of twenty-seven. On the deck of the " Lawrence " Perry despatched to the secretary of the navy a brief account of the victory, and shortly afterward to Gen. William H. Harrison, the famous line : " We have met the enemy, and they are ours." In the military operations at Detroit and in the battle of the Thames, 5 Oct., 1813, he took an important part, both with his fleet and as commander of the naval battalion on the land, and on his return to the east he was honored by public demonstrations in many towns and cities. Congress voted him thanks, a medal, and the rank of captain. The city of Bos- ton presented him with a set of silver, and other cities voted him thanks. He assisted in the de- fence of Baltimore, and in the squadron that was sent to the Mediterranean in 1815 he commanded the frigate "Java." In June, 1819, while in com- mand of the "John Adams" and other United States vessels in the West Indies, he was attacked by the yellow fever in the Orinoco, and died after a brief illness. His remains, removed by act of congress in a ship-of-war, were buried in Newport, 4 Dec, 1826. In addition to the granite obelisk erected by the state of Rhode Island and a marble statue by Walcutt, which was dedicated in Cleve- land, Oliio, in September, 1860, a bronze statue of Perry by William G. Turner was unveiled on 10 Sept., 1885. It stands opposite his old home, and was erected by citizens of Newport. The state of Ohio has also placed in the capitol at Washington a picture of the battle of Lake Erie and of Perry leaving the " Lawrence " for the " Niagara." Bi- ographies of Perry have been written by John M. Niles (Hartford, 1820); Alexander S. "Mackenzie (2 vols.. New York, 1843) ; and James Fenimore Cooper, in his " Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers " (Philadelphia, 1846). See also the account of the dedication of the statue at Cleve- land, with the addresses and other proceedings (Cleveland, 1861).— Another son, Matthew Cal- braith, naval officer, b. in Newport, R. I., 10 April, 1794 ; d. in New York city, 4 March, 1858, entering the navy as midshipman, 16 Jan., 1809, served in the schooner " Revenge " under his brother Oliver. He was ordered, on 12 Oct., 1810, to the flag-ship " President," and for three years was trained un- der the eye of Com. John Rodgers. He was in the afl'air of the " Little Belt," of which his diary gives a clear account, and in the chase of the " Belvi- dera " when Rodgers fired the first hostile shot afioat in the war of 1812 ; and in the cruises as commerce-destroyer of the " President " in the seas of northern Europe when twenty British men-of-war in pairs were scouring the ocean for the American frigate. He was made a lieutenant, 24 July, 1813, spent several months of inaction on the blockaded frigate " United States," and, after recruiting work and service on the brig " Chippewa," he obtained furlough and made commercial voyages to Europe. In 1819 he was executive officer of the " Cyane " to convoy the first colony of negroes from this coun- try to Africa. In an interview with the Portuguese governor of Ten- eritfe, who de- spised republics, Lieut. Perry re- fused an honor- ary salute unless returned gun for gun. In 1821, in command of the " Shark," he se- lected the site of the future Mon- rovia. All his life he was a dili-

gent student of

books and a keen observer of men and things, and he so mastered the question of ship hygiene that the regulations for use on the African station drawn up by him were in force for many years. He was one of the first naval officers to see clearly into the underlying causes of scurvy and to experi- ment successfully upon its prevention. Under Com. David Porter in the West Indies in 1822 he fought and ferreted out pirates, making also a voyage to Africa and another in 1823 to Mexico, where he began and later mastered the Spanish language. As executive officer of the line-of-battle- ship " North Carolina," then the finest war-vessel and carrying the heaviest floating armament in the world, he went to the Mediterranean, protecting American commerce from Greek pirates. At home he studied the question of recruiting, and founded the first U. S. naval-apprenticeship system. In com- mand of the sloop " Concord " in 1829 he took John Randolph as envoy to the czar in the first Ameri- can man-of-war to enter Russian waters. At a private audience that was granted Perry by Nicho- las, he was offered high rank in the Russian navy, but declined. He entertained and was entertained by Mehemet Ali, conqueror of Khartoum and founder of the khedival dynasty of Egypt. From the swords presented to Perry the " Mameluke grip " was copied for adoption into the U. S. navy. He commanded the forty-four-gun frigate " Bran- dy wine" in the brilliant naval demonstration of Com. Patterson in the harbor of Naples when the reluctant Ferdinand II. and Count Cassaro paid the spoliation claims that were urged by President Jackson on the arrival in the bay of the sixth U. S. war-vessel. As master-commandant, 7 Jan., 1833. he began ten years of shore duty at the Brooklyn navy-yard. This decade of study and application, most fruitful in results in naval science and of in- fluence upon our marine, caused him in after- years to be spoken of as " a chief educator of the U. S. navy." To summarize results, he or- ganized the Brooklyn naval lyceum, still active with museum, library, trophy-room, and corre- spondence, assisted to found and liberally con- tributed to the "Naval Magazine," studied and tabulated the action of the tides at Gardiner's isl- and for the United States and British admiralty charts, declined the command of the Antarctic ex- ploring expedition, though furnished, mainly by